Israel News

calls to “push, push” and a big shove, according to witnesses. Then, they began to fall, a tangle of too many bodies, compressed into too small of a space.

In the end, more than 150 people, most of them in their 20s and 30s, died, crushed under the surge of the crowd.

The tragedy — one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters — and questions about the authorities’ responsibility to manage the crowd has marred the image of South Korea, a thriving technology and pop-culture powerhouse that is chronically prone to man-made disasters. It has also added to political woes of the country’s beleaguered president, Yoon Suk Yeol, already suffering low approval ratings with a growing number of people out on the street demanding his resignation.

As the sun set on Itaewon on Sunday evening, a mournful and subdued atmosphere suffused the neighborhood. Police closed the streets to traffic in the area, where shuttered bars and restaurants put up signs of condolences. On the sidewalks, impromptu memorials of flowers and liquor formed makeshift shrines to the victims.

In briefing after briefing Sunday, officials, including the president and the Seoul mayor, Oh Se-hoon, vowed to do everything they could to make South Korea safer. But they offered little explanation for the lack of crowd control, what went wrong in the Itaewon alley, and why the country has had recurring disasters.

On Sunday, the home minister, Lee Sang-min, admitted that police were underprepared.

“The crowd this year was not worrisomely bigger, compared with past years,” Lee told reporters. “But our police forces were scattered to various protests across the city.” (© The New York Times)

Bibi is Back

We knew that he couldn’t be gone for good, and this week, after other attempts at victory, it seemed to the Israeli public that Bibi is back.

As ballots were being tallied on Wednesday from Tuesday’s election, all signs pointed at a resounding comeback for Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing bloc. With the results tentatively in, you could almost hear the resultant sighs of exhaustion from an Israeli public that had been put through five elections in less than four years.

But good things come to those who wait. With some 86 percent of the votes counted, the bloc of parties loyal to Netanyahu was predicted to win 65 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, a comfortable majority.

Still, the numbers will be shifting in the coming days as “double-envelope” ballots need to be counted.

Bibi’s bloc is set to include his Likud party, charedi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, and the far-right Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich, which includes Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit faction.

Perhaps the biggest victor in the election was Ben Gvir, who had come from a fringe party and is now a leader in a party representing around 10% of Israeli voters.

Ben Gvir vowed to be part of a “completely right-wing” government but add-

ed: “I want to say that I’ll work for all of Israel, even those who hate me.”

And, of course, Bibi is the biggest star of all – a comeback kid who is currently on trial in three corruption cases. The public, though, doesn’t seem to care and wishes to end the political stalemate that has plagued the nation for the past few years.

As of Wednesday morning, it was still unclear if the left-wing Meretz party and the Balad Arab party would enter the Knesset, as both were barely managing to hold onto the 3.25% minimal electoral threshold. Meretz was predicted to get 3.19% while Balad was at 3.01% -- with those numbers, both parties will not be in the next Knesset. If Meretz and Balad get their coveted numbers and if Labor holds onto the 3.57% they have now, then Bibi’s majority bloc may be uncertain. That scenario seems to be very unlikely, though.

Ayelet Shaked’s Jewish Home party received a dismal 1.17% of the vote this election, with many voters angry that she joined the current government that ousted Netanyahu last year after 12 years in power.

Ronen Hanania, HY”D

On Motzei Shabbos, Ronen Hanania and his son Daniel were shot while visiting a convenience store located between Kiryat Arba and the adjacent city of Hebron. When they returned to their car to leave, Muhammed Kamel al-Jabari shot at the two; a bullet entered Ronen’s head and he eventually died in his son’s arms.

The terrorist then opened fire on medics and settlement security guards who arrived at the scene to help the pair. Three people were wounded in the attack.

A quick-thinking security officer used his car to ram the Hamas terrorist and kill him.

On Sunday, Ronen was laid to rest in Har Hamenuchot in Jerusalem.

Hanania’s wife, Merav, said her late husband was meant to celebrate his birthday later this week.

“My dear husband was such a good person who enjoyed helping others. Everyone loved him, everyone,” she said. “He was such a good person to me and my son. I can’t accept it, I have nothing else in this life, only my son. Thank G-d, at least he was saved. I have nothing. I’m worth nothing. My husband will live on, he won’t leave me. His birthday is on Wednesday, we’ll always be together.”

Daniel, who was wounded in the same attack and witnessed his father’s death, called on Israeli lawmakers to ensure such an incident never repeats itself.

“I can’t believe that I’m standing here. G-d gave me a miracle. Dad, you died while doing G-d’s work and I will keep living while doing G-d’s work,” he said. “I call on the Israeli government to do everything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir was among the politicians to attend Hanania’s funeral.

“‘The bounder, the bound, and the altar,’ that is our story,” Ben Gvir said at the funeral, citing a Rosh Hashanah prayer. “That is Ronen’s story and the story of the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba — of terrorists’ bullets flying past us, sometimes hitting their target.”

In a separate incident on Sunday, a Palestinian driver plowed his vehicle into Israeli soldiers at two locations south of the West Bank city of Jericho, injuring five of them before being shot.

Lapid Tours Karish

Days after Israel signed a maritime border agreement with Lebanon, Prime Minister Yair Lapid toured the Karish natural gas field to view the production process that kicked off last week.

During his visit to the gas rig off Israel’s northern coast on Sunday, Lapid proclaimed that the field contains Israel’s “energy and economic future.”

“Producing gas from the Karish field will lower energy costs in Israel, will turn Israel into a regional energy supplier, and will help Europe deal with the energy crisis,” Lapid said.

The prime minister noted that the

natural gas from Karish will help lower the cost of living in Israel, a key issue ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Lapid received a briefing at the site from Shaul Zemach, the Israel country manager for Energean, the London-listed company extracting gas from the Karish and Tanin fields. Energean began production at Karish on Wednesday, a day before the signing of the Lebanon-Israel deal in Naqoura.

With the beginning of production, Karish joins Tamar and Leviathan to become Israel’s third offshore field providing natural gas, with each connected to the mainland by separate infrastructure.

Before the recent maritime border agreement was reached between Israel and Lebanon, the terror group Hezbollah — which launched drones toward Karish in July — had threatened attacks if Israel proceeded with gas extraction in the disputed area.

The maritime border deal went into effect on Thursday evening after a ceremony at a UN base near the border.

Massive Voter Turnout

at that time point since 1999.

This is the fifth time that the country has come to a vote in less than four years.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who started the day with a visit to the grave of his father, a noted cabinet minister and journalist, voted at the polling station near his Tel Aviv home.

“Go and vote today for the future of our children and the future of our country. Vote well and good luck to us all,” the premier said, invoking the name of his party Yesh Atid (“There is a future”).

President Isaac Herzog, voting in Jerusalem, said that every voting slip would make an impact.

“It is an enormous privilege to participate in the process of free, clean and equal elections. Billions of people around the world do not enjoy this privilege,” he said. “Without a shadow of a doubt, all votes have an impact. Anyone who thinks his or her vote does not matter is wrong,” Herzog added.

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu cast his ballot in Jerusalem, accompanied by his wife, Sara, and urged everyone to exercise their “great privilege.”

The opposition leader claimed to be worried about a high turnout in “leftwing” areas but said he hoped to “end the day with a smile.”

Most surveys in recent days gave the Netanyahu-led bloc 60 seats, meaning the smallest shift in favor of the opposition leader could enable him to form a coalition and return to power, with the support of the far-right Religious Zionism party and the two Haredi parties, Shas, and United Torah Judaism.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz called on voters to cast their ballots for the party they see as the most capable, rather than the largest. The National Unity party leader is considered a third potential prime ministerial candidate, after Lapid and Netanyahu.

“We do not want more incitement or more division. We want more unity, more security, more reconciliation between people,” he said, voting near his home in the central city of Rosh Ha’ayin.

“In my opinion, these elections are not about the big party, they are about the party that is most capable against in-